


Like a Slow-Building Storm

by Leonawriter



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: Gender Neutral Pronouns for Kiran (Fire Emblem), Nonbinary My Unit | Avatar (Fire Emblem Heroes), Other, spoilers for up to chapter 13
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 13:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: Alfonse had started off being the one Kiran had been most unsure around. Time and persistence helped ensure that this state of affairs didn't stay that way for too long.





	Like a Slow-Building Storm

If Kiran were honest, then they'd say that out of the three members of the Order of Heroes that they'd originally met when they'd been summoned out of their world and into the Kingdom of Askr, Sharena had been the one who'd instantly took a shine to them and had been more than happy to help until Kiran had become familiar and more used to the way things worked there - here - without electricity. A world with  _magic_. Anna had been happy enough to show them how things worked, too, and the way she found things for them to do at least put their mind off of the homesickness. Even if she did sometimes gripe about how getting new heroes to look after and care for meant money spent on those resources whenever she was in a foul mood.

Alfonse had always been the more distant one. Always saying that they shouldn't be letting themselves get too attached to each other. 

If it weren't for the way Kiran saw his face draw tight with obvious worry that showed through even when he tried to hide it, they might have thought Alfonse didn't like them, especially with the unhappy looks he sent their way every so often.

Virion had been the first hero they'd summoned with the Breidablik, but hardly the last. And although the castle had hardly been  _empty_ before, it wasn't long before the new faces were filling the place up, making noise in once-empty corridors, arguing and making friends and laughing and training and getting up in the middle of the night to sit under the stars and find food or wish they were home again.

They'd done that, Kiran had. Brought them away.

It was in a hallway open to the elements, the arches protecting those passing through from a terrifying drop - unless they were a wyvern or pegasus rider - that Alfonse found them, leaning onto the chest-high ledge and looking out at the stunning view, but only half seeing anything.

"...Kiran? Is that you?"

They turned at the sound of their name, and shrugged.

"Unless I gave the cloak to someone else...? Which I wouldn't. It's a lot colder here than I'm used to."

"Then perhaps you shouldn't spend so much time in windy places like this," Alfonse said with a frown.

Kiran laughed, albeit a bit awkwardly. "No, I meant - here, in general? Where I'm from it's a built up city, so it's just... generally warmer. And, anyway. The view's nice."

"Oh." Alfonse's expression softened, and the walked closer. Still not coming as close as, say, Sharena or Anna would, or even some of the heroes they'd summoned, but even so. "Yes, it is a good view from here, isn't it?"

They both stood there for a few minutes, until Kiran's questioning thoughts couldn't stay inside any longer.

"Alfonse? Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course. Whatever you want to know, I will do my best to answer."

"Do you..." they paused, hesitating, grateful for the hood of the cloak hiding their face. "Do you sometimes regret me coming here?"

Alfonse immediately straightened up, expression shocked. The way he looked just then, eyes wide and hair blowing in the stronger winds this high up, would stay with them for a long time.

"Of course not!"

"But you don't want to get close to any of us - any of the ones who'll have to go back to our own worlds someday when all this is over - do you? And if I hadn't come, and been able to use the Breidablik, then there wouldn't be so many of us."

Shock gave way to sadness, and the prince crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"That... I take it you remember what we've said about Zacharias, then?" Kiran nodded, hood falling away somewhat in the wind as they turned their head to face him properly. "I... must say, that it can be difficult. But the regret is always in knowing that one day, we will inevitably have to part ways, not in the fact that we met in the first place. And, Kiran.... that includes you. I hope you know that. We truly are fortunate to have you with us. I can't imagine a better summoner."

 _Oh,_ they found themself thinking,  _so that's what he actually thinks of me._

...

The courtyards weren't usually somewhere that people went to train, but over the weeks - months? - that they'd been in Askr, Kiran had noticed that Alfonse wouldn't always train with everyone else, and knowing that he had issues with connecting to people he  _knew_ would be leaving at some point only meant that he trained somewhere else sometimes.

Then there'd been those rare occasions when they'd been walking around, more in exploration than anything, and Alfonse had found them, suggesting that they patrol the castle together rather than run the risk of Kiran getting lost -  _again_. 

It wasn't like they could help it. The castle was  _big_ \- the Askran kingdom itself was  _big_ , and no matter how much they'd learned at school about how medieval castles and cities worked, nothing could prepare them for the real thing. Partly because nothing could have ever prepared them for the fact that there was magic, that magic was a thing, and that those ruins they went to every so often to summon heroes from, they actually  _worked._ They weren't just there to look decorative.

So, they'd asked one day, and Alfonse had blinked for a moment, apparently taken off guard. Kiran had wondered if they'd overstepped a boundary, and told Alfonse that he didn't need to say anything if he didn't have to, but the prince had merely taken them a little ways off the by then familiar path.

It still took them a while before they found themself meandering in that direction, and it was only by chance that they saw that Alfonse was indeed training. 

His sword and armour glittered in the sunlight, his motions fluid and efficient, a mix between grace and practicality that Kiran had never seen in the movies. 

A while passed before Alfonse looked up and over at where they were sat, smiled and waved them over, offered to teach them the sword if that was what they wanted, and laughed when Kiran declined, saying - truthfully! - that they already had a weapon, lifting up the Breidablik.

The truth was, they  _liked_ staying back and directing things from afar. They wouldn't exactly say it was  _easier,_ because they had the heroes' - and Alfonse, Sharena and Anna's - lives on the line, no matter that they all came back to the castle if they fell in battle. But seeing people they'd grown to know and care about go down no matter how good their instructions were and how well they were praised, made them wonder how good of a tactician they really were. A weapon meant that they could go onto that battlefield one day alongside them.

Despite how much they wanted to support and stand with these heroes, a weapon meant mortality, meant  _death_ , and they were also worried,  _scared -_ if they died out there, would they come back to the castle too, or would they just... not come back?

Alfonse must have seen some of their worries, however, because he didn't push the idea any further, only mentioning that if Kiran were willing, then the offer stood. 

Instead, they practiced their aim with the Breidablik - and when Alfonse asked if that was a wise idea, they reminded him that it only seemed to work at the ruins, and when powered up by orbs, neither of which were present right now. 

On the one hand, that meant that they couldn't tell exactly how good their aim was being, or if their 'training' was even effective at all. But on the other hand, it meant that they could let loose and have fun and just be outright  _silly,_ and if they somehow were able to goad Alfonse into having fun as well - that was just a bonus, wasn't it?

By the time they were headed back toward everyone else again, they were both tired, but smiling. As far as Kiran was concerned, they'd learned more about Alfonse... and they'd also managed to get the prince to open up a bit, too. 

...

"Every time I see you in those clothes," Alfonse was saying as they walked back to camp with firewood in their arms, "I'm amazed. None of the other heroes from all of the worlds we've been to dress quite like you."

If Kiran were home, then they'd have wondered if that was meant as an insult of some kind. But they weren't, and this was Alfonse, who they knew by now loved learning about heroes and the worlds they came from just as much as his sister did. He only did a better job at hiding it most of the time.

Usually, they'd be wearing the clothes that Anna had supplied for them after they'd first made it back to the Askran castle they were all based in. But right now they were camping - not even on a campaign - with the express purpose of teaching Kiran how to do simple things such as set up and take down camp. 

They shrugged.

"It's not  _that_ weird. It's just jeans and a t-shirt that I wasn't too bothered about getting dirty  _before_ , and now I just - I didn't want to get that nice white cloak all muddy, okay?"

Alfonse made a noise beside them. A slight huff. He was  _laughing_.

"I don't see what's so funny. You gave me those clothes so I'd be presentable, fit in, and I don't want to-"

"Kiran, no offence was meant. I merely - I understand the sentiment more than you know. I may have told you before, but... not everyone was happy to see me enter the Order of Heroes. You may have noticed, but given the nature of the Order, no one is given any higher rank or respect than any other - even the three of us fight alongside our troops. This is because many arrive having been used to the services of retainers and servants, which are no longer available. Some take this better than others, but seeing the commanders in the same position that they are in, I've noticed that it tends to make things easier."

They walked on for a while longer, Kiran thankful that a few months in Askr had given them more stamina for this sort of thing.

"I guess I also just wanted to be abel to wear it sometimes still. Not forget what it's like." A quick glance over at Alfonse when he didn't say anything and the noises of camp and Anna talking loudly came into earshot, proved that he'd turned contemplative again, eyes far away. He was probably reminding himself that Kiran was going to go home at some point too, just like everyone else. "If it helps, I think you do a good job. I mean, you've been helping set  _me_ at ease so much, I don't know what I'd have done without you! Or the others too."

Alfonse's sad expression went slightly shocked, eyes widening as his breath hitched, before it softened into something more content.

"Thank you. I do mean that, Kiran. And not lightly."

...

Two days after chasing down Bruno - or was that Zacharias, now? - Alfonse found them as they were reading and re-reading some old scrolls on battle tactics that they'd found in the library, which they'd been working on with the Robins. Which could sometimes get a bit confusing, given at least with the Corrins they could refer to each as 'Prince' or 'Princess' when they needed to be specific, but the Robins had nothing like that. 

Alfonse spent a while listening as they explained what the scrolls seemed to be saying. Some sort of explanation of how better to utilise specialties on the battlefield. But then he stood and reached for their hand, and led Kiran out of the library - trusting that the servants would know not to disturb the tacticians' work - and a little way beyond the castle.

The place was, Kiran found out, an outcropping looking out over the sea as it came into the Askran city's main port, but the city itself and its people were so far away that their sounds were dimmed. They stepped carefully as they followed, not just because of how high up they were, but also because of the beautiful flowers that they didn't want to crush under their feet, glowing pale in the moonlight.

It wasn't the first time they'd seen the stars since being summoned to the Order of Heroes, but the sight took their breath away each time. 

"I always find the view from here quite stunning, don't you agree?"

Kiran nodded. For a moment, they couldn't find the words.

"I'd never seen so many stars like this before coming here, you know?" they said, voice low and quiet even though it was just them, with no one else around to hear them for miles. There was something serene and spiritual to the way they could see the glimmering pinpricks painted across the sky like a universal tapestry. "There's so much light pollution back home - so much bright light on the ground," they clarified, "that the light up there just gets, well, drowned out."

They glanced over at Alfonse, only to find that he was staring distantly at both everything and nothing.

"You're thinking about how I'm going to have to go home again at some point, aren't you."

The prince jumped slightly, and turned to look at them, guilt in his eyes, before looking away, down this time.

"You know me too well, Kiran. And here... I brought you here because I wanted to share something that I found with my sister and Zacharias, when he still travelled with us. I wouldn't want you to be sad, and yet..."

"You're worried what's going to happen to everyone? You know... I am, too. I want everyone to be able to go home and be happy, at least as much as they can be, when this is all over. I want you and Sharena and Anna to be able to be friends with Zacharias, er, Bruno, again. I'd like to get to know him better, too! He did help me, a few times, even. Maybe if we can find a way to break the curse on the Emblans, we can all get to know each other better."

"But- Kiran... when this is all over, wouldn't that also mean that you'd be going home too?" Alfonse winced. "My apologies. I didn't mean to-"

Kiran folded their arms over their chest, partly just to feel slightly warmer in the cold night air, the high up, and looked over at the prince.  _Their_ prince, in many ways.

"Don't. There's.... not even really a need. I've... I've been thinking. That after all this, I think I want to stay here. Of course I'll be wanting to tell my friends and family back home what's going on, but if there isn't a war on, that won't be a problem. But - I feel  _useful_ here. Like I can make a difference. I've made so many friends, that even if they all go back home, they've made as much of a difference to me as I've made on them. And... I'd miss all of this, if I went home and stayed there."

"I... Kiran. I don't know what to say. You're serious?"

The expression on Alfonse's face was enough to solidify the notion, even if they _hadn't_ been thinking on it for a long time already. 

"You know me pretty well by now too, Alfonse. What do you think?"


End file.
